Chronicals of Lake Narocz by Mieczyslaw Lisiewicz

Chronicals of Lake Narocz by Mieczyslaw Lisiewicz

Chronicals of Lake Narocz by Mieczyslaw Lisiewicz

This long out of print autobiographical work by this
Polish author is reproduced here in full. I have transcribed the work
and present it here for all to read. Copyright remains the property of
the owners whoever and wherever they are. If anyone who is reading this
has any historical facts, documents, maps or photographs about Narocz
I would be very grateful if you would contact me, Alan
at Landschaft I hope readers enjoy, as I have, the tales from this
forgotten corner of the world.

Dust Cover Notes

Synopsis

The dust cover notes are of their time. Long sentances
with circuitous sub-clauses and with an eye to maximising sales. No mention
of the gloomy downbeat 1916 Battle of Lake Narocz, for example which takes
up three chapters. Instead they concentrate on the natural history and
cultural topics. The dust-cover notes are presented in the book in one
chunk of solid prose, unbroken by paragraphing. The book was priced 10/6
(ten shillings and sixpence, fifty two and a half pence in modern coin),
and represented a considerable investment in 1945. The book 13cm x 19cm
in size is printed on flimsy war-issue paper, little thicker than newsprint,
comprising 224 pages of typset pages (exc end-papers). The work is published
by Polish Library, Glasgow 1945, published (and printed) by William Hodge
and Company Ltd of London Edinburgh and Glasgow (who are still in business
in Glasgow).

Dust Cover Notes; Front Inner: The Text

A little touch of nature makes the whole world kin,
and this literary gem, preserved from the wreckage of Poland that was,
through the chaos and confusion of war and the ruthless levelling of cultures,
carries over the barriers of nationality and language the candid and courageous
yet kindly expression of one man's reaction to the wonders of wild life
and the mysteries on an unspoiled, primordial environment. The author,
Mieczyslaw Lisiewicz, is afighting Pole who has retrieved from the rubble
of his former existence these vivid and moving memories of quiet retreats
in the days of peace. His is the rare faculty of making people and places,
domestic animals and the creatures of the wilderness, live for the reader.
Conoisseures of nature writing will quickly recognise this book as worthy
to share a shelf with the classics of it's kind in any language. More
than a warm and colourful recording of the marvels of a little known corner
of the world, it presents against this picturesque background the comedy
and tragedy of human hopes and disappointments, temptations, chagrin and
a never dying faith in the goodness that permeates the world's complexities.
The woods and waters it's poetic prose subtly conjures up are "away from
the war", yet in these primaeval fastnesses are the traces of conflict
through the ages and into recent times. History and legend are intertwined
in it's trees and reeds and grasses and tangled with the underwater growth.
Through all his recollections, reminiscences and spontanious digressions...

Dust Cover Notes; Back Inner: The Text

... into gripping narrative, the individuality of a
cultured Pole is couragiously expressed. Soon we know Lake Narocz as an
incomparable waterway of escape and quiet contemplation, and Mieczyslaw
Lisiewicz as the ideal companion for our inland voyage. he writes as familiarly
and sympathetically of dogs and fishes and plants as of people. His shrewd
yet gentle eye catches the minute facets of life's myriad brilliance,
and his power of descriptive writing is matched by his skill in telling
a gripping story, whether it be from the dim and dstant past or from his
own thrilling and amusing experiences. The Polish original was completed
some time before the beginning of the present war and was in process of
pubvlication when the author was uprooted with so many of his countrymen.
It secured publication at last in the country after the manuscript had
undergone viscitudes which furnish another moving story. The translator,
Mrs Ann Maitland-Chuwen, has palced Emglisg-speaking readers in her debt
by preparing this version so soon after the appearance of the original,
and by contriving to carry over from the Polish the candour, the colour,
the feeling and the grace of expression which characterises Lisiewicz's
unusual work; and the tasteful photographic illustrations serve as corroboration
to a text whick lacks nothing in descriptive clarity and exotic appeal.
Is is a singular contribution to that select class of literature which,
though unmistakably national in it's origins, belongs ultimately to no
one country, but to the world.